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Type A Personality Traits

Last Updated: 11/15/2017

Type A personality traits are medically related to an increased risk of health problems. To remain healthy, it becomes important to recognize the unhealthy traits of type A personality. Type A personalities are often viewed as rude and impatient workaholics. The stigma of being viewed by society as overly competitive, abrupt and angry may cause those who exhibit the type A personality traits to feel hostility in the social environment. It is important to understand that being an extreme type A personality does not mean that one has an inherent bad personality. Type A personality is normal, but like many stressful lifestyles it can lead to health problems down the road.

Type A personality traits are also referred to as type A behavior. These are the characteristics that a person with type A personalities exhibit in their actions and attitudes.

The person with type A personality traits often feels an urgent need to complete a task. This type of time sensitive urgency is relative to impatience. In turn, those around the type A personality traits may confuse the time-urgent sensitivity as bad manners or boorish behavior. The concern for the type A personality is that they are unable to control the time sensitive urges. There is a need to move quicker and achieve maximum amounts of activity in a minimum amount of time. This can be very frustrating to the type A personality. The extreme type A may feel controlled by time and urgency and are often unable to overcome the need to continue at a faster pace.

Type A personalities also exhibit aggressiveness and are easily frustrated with a situation. This is again relative to the consistent urgency. An environmental or external stressor occurs that removes the type A’s ability to overcome the situation quickly and efficiently and an extreme type A may exhibit hostility, impatience and animosity towards the situation or person involved.

For example, people who do not exhibit the type A personality characteristics may be irked that a flat tire caused them to be late. The person with type A personality behavior may find that they are unable to control their infuriation at the situation that prevents he or she from controlling the situation in a time sensitive fashion. This is because there is a strong and urgent need to be continuously in motion to reach a specific amount of performance.

Type A personality behavior also includes a desire to be competitive. This can be any event or situation where the type A personality feels as though they must complete a task above and beyond the normal (or perceived) actions of others. For example, a type A personality does not simply work to complete a project, they work to complete a project better, faster and with a greater passion than other personalities would. This is called a strong-achievement orientation. The more sense of achievement and accomplishment a type A personality gains, the more this person will express an urgent need to achieve desired goals.

The idea of a type A personality having a strong-achievement orientation is both one of environment and internal stressors. It is difficult for a type A personality to ignore the sense of time urgency. Competitive situations often enhance the extreme type A’s ability to function beneath the sense of urgency and complete a specific task. Furthermore, a type A personality is highly reactive to the environment and social structure they function within. This includes jobs which require constant and continuous projects with time-sensitivity and urgency. The type A personality values efficiency and achievement because the workplace or educational environment they function within places a positive value on these characteristics.

Additional stressors found in competitive workplace environments also create more stress for the type A personality, which in turn forces the type A to react to the stressor. This is sometimes a negative reaction of verbal or physical intensity and frustration. The abruptness a type A personality exhibits in these situations is not truly anger, but the type A’s extreme reaction to the urgency of the environment.

These internal characteristic of time-sensitivity, urgency and strong-achievement orientation have external impacts. Many type A personality traits develop physical characteristics that exemplify their internal stress. This can be a facial tension such as tight lips or clenched jaw, clicking of the tongue and grinding of the teeth. Other physical characteristics include dark circles under the eyes due to lack of adequate rest and facial or lip sweating.

There are multiple negative health effects associated with type A personalities. The enhanced sense of urgency and heightened reactions to environmental stressors begin to have acute and life-threatening health impacts. Type A personalities often suffer from hypertension, or high blood pressure, and has been medically documented as a strong risk factor for most type A personalities. Heart disease is another risk factor for the type A personality. This is directly related to the constant stress and hypertension the type A is exposed to. The type A personality who experiences high and constant levels of stress can also experience metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome, according to the American Heart Association, is an increased risk of coronary heart disease and plaque build up on the artery walls. Metabolic syndrome is also related to insulin resistance, which can cause diabetes.

Overcoming and preventing the negative health effects of a type A personality begins with making minor lifestyle changes. Changing the negative behaviors and mindset that cause the stressful type A personality is not always an easy task, but it can be accomplished.

First, the time-sensitivity and urgency must be recognized as a characteristic of the type A behavior. Once the type A personality understands that this is simply a behavioral reaction to an external stressor (the clock), it becomes easier to changes the attitude towards time. Begin to regard time as a friendly guide rather than a point of animosity and stress. When time moves too slow or too fast and this causes stress, type A personalities can practice calming down by counting breaths. This removes some of the urgency through distraction. Focusing on breathing, particularly in situations where the type A personalities feels trapped, can help maintain a calm focus and remove some of the stress that comes with the time-sensitive urgency.

Competition and strong-achievement orientation are desirable traits in many careers, but for the extreme type A they can be signs of an overly stressful environment. Evaluate the current career to see if the completive environment is a positive or negative stressor. A positive stressor is encouraging. A negative stressor causes one to feel additional complication and fear of failure. Learn to be forgiving when a specific deadline is not met, or first place is not reached. Importantly, a type A personality must also realize that not every action or project is a competition. Spend time doing an activity simply for the sake of doing an activity, rather than to achieve a goal. For example, take fifteen minutes during lunch to unwind, take a short nap, or simply listen to relaxing music. Spend extra time with the family rather than working on an “important” project or meeting a deadline. Hug the kids and show more compassion.

Anger, frustration and hostility are the most severe type A personality characteristics. Keep a verbal or written journal of the moments when these characteristics overcome common sense and politeness.

This will help the type A personality recognize the most stressful actions and times of the day or week. Use this journal to express the strong emotions and allow for forgiveness of others. Recognize what items in the journal are illogical. For example, the extremely slow driver only equates to a few minor moments of the day, but for an extreme type A personality these moments are important. Recognize when the frustration with another’s actions is explosive and react with empathy and forgiveness instead of agitation.

Another hard concept for an extreme type A personality to comprehend is giving frequent and quality affection. Affection can be viewed as a time-waster by a type A personality. Change this attitude! View affection and conversation with family and friends as building an emotional support network. Make a game of how many hugs and enjoyable calm moments with others can be created in a single day.

The constant sense of urgency and timeliness combined with a desire to compete and achieve that a type A personality feels can have drastic consequences on their health. Learning to forgive errors, to find enjoyment and overcome frustration can improve the lifestyle and health of a type A personality.

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